English faculty Stephanie Carpenter has been awarded the 2024 Summit Series annual prize for her recent novel, Moral Treatment, from publisher Central Michigan University Press.
The 2024 submission guidelines called for previously unpublished, manuscript-length works, such as novels, novellas, or anthologies, written by current or former residents of Michigan. Included in the prize is publication of the completed work.
Moral Treatment takes place in a psychiatric hospital inspired by the State Hospital in Traverse City, MI, where Stephanie grew up. It follows the parallel stories of Amy Underwood, a troubled 17-year-old patient at the hospital, and “the doctor,” the 65-year old superintendent whose grip on the institution is starting to slip.
Says the Summit Series award page, “Both a coming-of-age story and a story about the challenges of aging, Moral Treatment vividly imagines an era of idealism, crisis, and transition in mental health care in the United States.”
Stephanie Carpenter is an assistant professor of creative writing at Michigan Tech. She teaches courses in reading, writing, and literature in the humanities department.
